Dobre Silvia, Herbert Rachel, Shijie Ding Alvin, Pohl Hans
International Center for the Study of Research, Elsevier, Oxford, United Kingdom.
International Center for the Study of Research, Elsevier, Beijing, China.
PLoS One. 2024 Dec 2;19(12):e0308147. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0308147. eCollection 2024.
Researcher mobility is an integral part of the way research is conducted and of a researcher's career. Its effects on collaboration networks, research impact and knowledge flows drive countries and institutions to quantify and understand this activity. The purpose of this study is to test a new researcher mobility model which was developed and prototyped as a customisable research tool to provide a unified perspective on mobility at macro (national), meso (institutional) and micro (individual) levels. The approach includes multidimensional perspectives, including temporal, geographical, sectoral, directional mobility, that could be used for benchmarking and trend analyses. The model quantifies research mobility volumes and qualifies the mobility flow additional researcher characteristics and productivity indicators. We tested the tool among Sweden's higher education sector, observing researcher mobility patterns between 1992-2021. Results show a high degree of variability in researcher mobility patterns across institutions, especially when considered by career age. Larger higher education institutions in Sweden tend to see a high level of inter-university mobility: most of the Outflow researchers have international mobility and were affiliated with organisations from diverse sectors. Smaller universities are more adapted to attract early- and retain late-career researchers. One university was identified as an incubator for early-career researchers that go on to high levels of mobility. Another university achieved higher mobility rates by facilitating short-term mobility abroad. The study highlighted a shift in the countries of destination for the Inflow early-career researchers: fewer were affiliated with USA, UK or Japan, while other countries became more prominent (China, Germany, Netherlands, Spain) and new destinations emerged (Brazil, India, Iran). The study emphasized that visiting researchers are consistently more productive, and their research impact is generally higher. With the help of our advanced model, we present a detailed picture of mobility in Sweden and demonstrate the power of this customisable tool.
研究人员流动是开展研究方式以及研究人员职业生涯的一个组成部分。其对合作网络、研究影响力和知识流动的影响促使各国和各机构对这一活动进行量化并加以理解。本研究的目的是测试一种新的研究人员流动模型，该模型已开发并制成原型，作为一种可定制的研究工具，以在宏观（国家）、中观（机构）和微观（个人）层面提供关于流动的统一视角。该方法包括多维视角，包括时间、地理、部门、方向流动等，可用于基准测试和趋势分析。该模型对研究流动量进行量化，并对流动流的其他研究人员特征和生产力指标进行定性。我们在瑞典高等教育部门对该工具进行了测试，观察了1992年至2021年期间研究人员的流动模式。结果表明，各机构之间研究人员的流动模式存在高度差异，尤其是按职业年龄来看。瑞典较大的高等教育机构往往有较高的校际流动水平：大多数流出研究人员具有国际流动性，且隶属于不同部门的组织。规模较小的大学更适合吸引早期职业研究人员并留住后期职业研究人员。有一所大学被确定为早期职业研究人员的孵化器，这些研究人员随后有很高的流动性。另一所大学通过促进短期国外流动实现了更高的流动率。该研究突出了流入早期职业研究人员目的地国家的转变：与美国、英国或日本相关联的人员减少，而其他国家变得更加突出（中国、德国、荷兰、西班牙），并且出现了新的目的地（巴西、印度、伊朗）。该研究强调访问研究人员始终更具生产力，并且他们的研究影响力总体上更高。借助我们先进的模型，我们展示了瑞典流动的详细情况，并证明了这种可定制工具的强大功能。
